Sydney, Feb 24 (ANI): The radio-commentary blackout for the India-Australia Test series, which was propelled by Board of Cricket Control in India's (BCCI) tough demands, has been broken by a London-based group of cricket devotees.

ABC Radio is not represented in India because of a stalemate over pricing and ground-access rules with the BCCI in India, and there are no English radio broadcasters it can simulcast for commentary, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The result has been that unless you have access to the Fox Sports pay-TV channels, you are unable to get ball-by-ball commentary of the series, which began on Friday, the paper said.

Cricketing website Test Match Sofa, a twist on the BBC's Test Match Special, has built a large following providing irreverent alternative commentary for series and tournaments involving England, the paper reported.

Play is described exclusively from television coverage, by a group of devotees who combine paid employment with voluntary commentary stints, and test Match Sofa became so popular that a year ago it was bought by the long-running English magazine The Cricketer, the paper said.

News of the radio-commentary blackout in Australia quickly spread to England, and specifically the Test Match Sofa team, which received a groundswell of support begging for The Cricketer to step into the breach, according to magazine's editor Andrew Miller said.

Test Match Sofa founder and lead commentator Dan Norcross said Australian listeners had demonstrated their appreciation for the decision to provide commentary even before the series began, the paper reported. (ANI)